1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage material having a treatment device for the treatment of bottle caps.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
When the quality requirements for the beverage being bottled are stringent, caps on beverage containers, such as screw-on caps, crown corks, can covers etc. must be treated prior to installation on the beverage container. To meet these requirements, the conventional treatment methods expose the caps to a gas atmosphere that either has a sterilizing effect itself or dries treatment liquids such as e.g. H2O2 that have been applied to the surfaces of the caps. For this purpose, the caps must be exposed to a defined atmosphere for a relatively long time.
Since in modern container handling machines, the caps are guided in tracks, generally a single track, to make an orderly sequence of operations possible, they must also be guided in tracks in the treatment device. If we take into consideration the current processing speeds of cap closing machines, and given the length of time the caps must be held in the treatment device, the result is a distance of several meters. When the track is realized in the form of a chute or a driven conveyor, that can cause significant problems in terms of space and construction.
A similar treatment device of the prior art is known from WO 00/46142 A2. In a closed housing through which the handling atmosphere circulates, the track is arranged so that it makes a plurality of revolutions around a vertical axis. This arrangement has the advantage that it makes it possible to install a long track in a small three-dimensional space, thereby solving space problems.
One disadvantage of this construction is the helical, stationary realization of the trajectory on which the caps move by sliding over the entire length of the trajectory. In view of the relatively flat inclination of the helix which is necessary to reduce the amount of space the system takes up, the caps do not slide exclusively as a result of the angle of inclination of the track, but require additional propulsion—several different realizations of which are explained in the above-referenced prior art document—either by means of air blown in through nozzles or with a rotating drum that drives the caps engaged in slots. The result is an extraordinarily complicated construction which is also susceptible to jams and backups.